Millions of people have died in eastern Congo, in what is the world's deadliest conflict since the second world war. Ending the Democratic Republic of the Congo's multiple conflicts is the single most important task in improving the lives of Congolese, making more lasting development possible and giving people a say in their own affairs. Trying to talk about economic development in eastern Congo without acknowledging this elephant in the room just doesn't make sense.

It is indisputable that the illicit minerals trade in eastern Congo (minerals that ultimately end up in many of our personal electronics devices such as mobile phones, laptops and digital cameras) remains one of the important factors fuelling the violence. Not only do an array of armed groups continue to clash to control respective mines, their stranglehold over minerals and the imposition of "taxes" on local populations and traders allows these militias to finance more weapons purchases, more violence and more corruption.

Severing the link between the minerals trade and the armed groups committing atrocities in eastern Congo is one of the most critical steps toward changing the logic of war in Congo.

Recent public and private reporting out of one of the hotbeds of conflict mineral production, North and South Kivu, suggests that the nexus between mineral resources and violence, especially rampant sexual violence, continues unabated. Recently enterprising reporters from the BBC followed the minerals trail to Mwenga in South Kivu province, where they found villagers illegally taxed and terrorised by FDLR rebels – a militia deeply implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The international community has spent billions on elections and peacekeeping in Congo, but despite the extensive documentation of Congo's war economy by UN investigations, existing peacemaking efforts have failed to address the economic drivers of the conflict. The international community has failed to take the advice that served Woodward and Bernstein so well: "Follow the money." As a result, ordinary Congolese remain trapped, their livelihoods dependent on an exploitative minerals trade that leaves the state sapped of resources and keeps violent armed groups well-financed.

Meanwhile the rest of the world continues to benefit from the end products associated with this business. International demand for low-cost electronics products has encouraged increased demand for minerals from eastern Congo, which are inexpensive precisely because they are coercively extracted by armed groups under exploitative systems, with little financial benefit flowing to local people who continue to work under medieval conditions that shock the conscience.

Most major electronics companies in the United States do not know for sure where exactly the minerals in their products come from, and offer only bland reassurances that they too want their products to be conflict free. But as of yet, no major electronics company has fully traced their supply chain back to their mines of origin – the only way to ensure that when you and I buy a new mobile phone we are not fuelling flagrant human rights abuses.

Sustained support for the reform of key Congolese institutions, especially the security sector, is the only long-term cure for Congo's dysfunction. But such efforts will falter if nothing is done to reduce the millions of dollars that are made available to spoilers through the minerals trade.

Transparency is the non-negotiable first-step to a legitimate mineral trade in eastern Congo. It is not surprising that the same Congolese and international businesses that have profited handsomely from Congo's current misery are quick to portray much needed reforms as a threat to the livelihood of miners.

The Enough Project and our allies both in the United States and Congo are not calling for a boycott of Congolese minerals. Rather we are asking electronics companies to take responsibility for their supply chains by tracing their minerals back to their mines of origin and subjecting their supply chains to independently verifiable audits so that consumers can be assured they are not helping finance some of the worst violence in the world in violation of UN security council resolutions.

We recognise that some miners in militia-held areas would be affected by more transparent trade, and we have called for a substantial international investment in alternative livelihoods and transitional support for miners to mitigate these effects. But make no mistake: Congo's poor will be best served by a concerted international push for peace, an end to the trade in illicit conflict minerals and a life where they do not live every day at the point of a gun.